1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for diagnosing a home appliance, and more particularly to a system and method for diagnosing a home appliance, which check a current status of the home appliance by analyzing product information that is output as a predetermined sound from the home appliance, such that after-sale service for the home appliance is facilitated.
2. Description of the Related Art
While a home appliance carries out a specific operation, it stores setup values required for the specific operation, information generated by the operation, malfunction or faulty operation information, etc. Specifically, the home appliance outputs a predetermined alarm sound signal when a malfunction or faulty operation occurs, such that a user who uses the home appliance can easily recognize a status of the home appliance. The home appliance informs the user of the operation completion or the malfunction occurrence, and at the same time outputs detailed malfunction information through an output unit (e.g., a display unit or a lamp).
In the meantime, if a malfunction or faulty operation occurs in the home appliance, the user informs an after-sale service center of the occurrence of malfunction or faulty operation by phone or E-mail, such that the user may ask advice of a service technician or ask the service technician to repair the faulty home appliance.
Generally, malfunction or fault information may be output externally through the home appliance, or may also be output as a fault code unknown to the user, such that the user has difficulty in properly solving such malfunction or fault of the home appliance. Although the user communicates with a service technician who works for the service center by phone or E-mail, the user may have difficulty in correctly explaining a faulty operation status of the home appliance to the service technician, such that the service technician may also have difficulty in providing a correct solution to the user. Although the service technician visits a home of the user who has requested after-sale service, the service technician does not recognize a correct status of the home appliance to be repaired, so that the repair of the home appliance generally takes a long time and much cost. For example, if the service technician who visits the home of the user does not have an appropriate component needed to repair the home appliance, the service technician must re-visit the corresponding home later after returning to the service center to retrieve the appropriate component, resulting in the occurrence of greater inconvenience and a long repair time.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the home appliance may be connected to a server of the service center through a predetermined communication unit. However, a communication network must be implemented between each home and the service center.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,105 has disclosed an appliance communication system that converts fault information into a sound signal having an audible frequency transmissible over a telephone network, and transmits the sound signal to the service center or the like through a telephone.
However, the above-mentioned related art disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,105 has difficulty in correctly detecting data when a sound signal is analyzed and diagnosed. In conclusion, there is needed an improved technology that allows a home appliance to output information using a sound signal, transmits the sound signal to a service center through a telephone line, and diagnoses a current status of the home appliance and the presence or absence of a faulty operation in such a manner that correct data detection is provided.